places and times in your life ??

[frenchy]

ehh when i was younger .. i did some partyin.. and i won't lie .. i inhaled .. and some other things that well lets say i don't remember em all that well .. and some i shouldn't really tell you cause i do ..i used to rent this house with a bunch of my friends when i was in my early 20's..   i remember one nite things got a little outta control and we ripped the banister inside the house down .. it was an old house tho . looked kinda like the house in the picture on the cover of the first crosby stills and nash album .. and most of the time we really didn't need it anyway . cept for one night i was walkin upstairs and i walked off the stairs at about the 4th stair up .if that banister was there i might not have walked off the edge of them stairs.. or maybe i woulda found a way to flip right over it .. who can say ??   and i remember there in the middle of the hallway was the only heatin grate that heated the whole house .. ( i did say it was an old house didn't i ) and the grate had a really lovely design on it .. i should know cause i passed out on it right there and everybody just partied around me all nite .. when i woke up the next mornin i had the designs from that grate on one side of my face .. and they stayed there for most of the day .. i loved that old house tho .. but all good things have to come to an end .. and i finally realized i had to put childhood things aside and moved out .. i had a friend who used to play the drums with me and he knew the people who moved in so i went over with him .. just to look around ..this was a couple of years later .. and i'm almost sorry that i did .. nothin was the same .. i was lookin around and thinkin no no no there should be an ugly green couch over here and a little yellow couch with the legs sawed off over there ..and a really ugly blue shag carpet in the middle of the room ..  i guess i wasn't expectin it to be the same as it was but i was hopin it might be ..and seein it all fixed up by this young couple and them makin it their own kinda upset me at first .. i mean how dare they change the decor of what i though was the perfect party house .. but to them it wasn't really a party house .. so we sat and talked for a bit .. poked a little smot .. and i felt better about it all ans as we went back outside to leave i remembered this song .. and it fit so well .. 

Well I looked into a house I once lived in 
Around the time I first went on my own 
When the roads were as many as the places I had dreamed of 
And my friends and I were one 
Now the distance is done and the search has begun 
I've come to see where my beginnings have gone 

Oh the walls and the windows were still standing 
And the music could be heard at the door 
Where the people who kindly endured my odd questions 
Asked if I came very far 
And when my silence replied they took me inside 
Where their children sat playing on the floor 

Well we spoke of the changes that would find us farther on 
And it left me so warm and so high 
But as I stepped back outside to the grey morning sun 
I heard that highway whisper and sigh 
Are you ready to fly? 

And I looked into the faces all passing by 
It's an ocean that will never be filled 
And the house that grows older and finally crumbles 
That even love cannot rebuild 
It's a hotel at best, you're here as a guest 
You oughta make yourself at home while you're waiting for the rest 

Well I looked into dream of the millions 
That one day the search will be through 
Now here I stand at the edge of my embattled illusions 
Looking into you 

The great song traveler passed through here 
And he opened my eyes to the view 
And I was among those who called him a prophet 
And I asked him what was true 
Until the distance had shown how the road remains alone 
Now I'm looking in my life for a truth that is my own 

Well I looked into the sky for my anthem 
And the words and the music came through 
But words and music can never touch the beauty that I've seen 
Looking into you -- and that's true..

a few years later they tore the house down and now its gone forever .. just like my youth .. but it was beautiful while it was there .. absolutely beautiful .. 

[crestofwaves]

Frenchy,

Your story reminds me of this poem by Allen Ginsberg .  Kesey's, who was one of the Beats and wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--one of the best satirical books ever about the human situation, house, at the time, was out near the west coast, I think California or Oregon:

 

 And here is the poem:

First Party At Ken Kesey's With Hell's Angels

Cool black night thru redwoods cars parked outside in shade
behind the gate, stars dim above
the ravine, a fire burning by the side
porch and a few tired souls hunched over
in black leather jackets. In the huge
wooden house, a yellow chandelier
at 3 A.M. the blast of loudspeakers
hi-fi Rolling Stones Ray Charles Beatles
Jumping Joe Jackson and twenty youths
dancing to the vibration thru the floor,
a little weed in the bathroom, girls in scarlet
tights, one muscular smooth skinned man
sweating dancing for hours, beer cans
bent littering the yard, a hanged man
sculpture dangling from a high creek branch,
children sleeping softly in their bedroom bunks.
And 4 police cars parked outside the painted
gate, red lights revolving in the leaves.

December 1965

Allen Ginsberg

 

 

[frenchy]

sounds similar to some of the nites we had there cresty .. and then sometimes we got totally outta control.. and i remember one flew over the cucoo's nest very well .. i kinda lived it for a short time in that house .. 

[T2Friends]

They say it is never too late Callie.  You can still rebel, it might look a little different but it is always possible to swim against the tide or go a little wild...if that is what you want. 

[crestofwaves]

I would love a weekend away to just hang with a gang, lol.

[frenchy]

well now you're kinda gettin into the big chill territory .. but i might be game .. maybe .. anybody else??

[blithe spirit]

 If we're going to rent a house, a beach house would be nice, don't you think?

Or maybe frenchy's house...he has a pool.

[crestofwaves]

I volunteer Frenchy's house, but he'd have to explain us all to his girlfriend. She's not allowed.  Just the people from here.  But I have to wait until I"m done working in June.

[Kim]

Frenchy, sounds like a great time in your life.....I was mostly a good girl growing up but I did my BEST partying before i was 18 and had a total blast partying the first 2 years I was single after my divorce. (going on my 4th year...woo hoo!!) The beach house you all are proposing sounds like a the best fun ever.